IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019
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IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019 The Whys and Wherefores of Spain’s Current Political Crisis: Catalonia... Again Michael Strubell, formerly from Open University of Catalonia, Spain Abstract In recent years the media have been full of dramatic headlines on Catalonia. At the time of writing (July 2018) there is a serious institutional crisis unfolding daily. Extracts from media reports serve as a backdrop to this paper. The paper seeks to provide the background needed to understand what has driven events as far as the current situation: a declaration of independence, an immediate takeover of direct rule, with dismissal of the Catalan government (now part in exile, part in pre-trial detention), forced – for many, illegal – elections, and every effort being made by Spain to prevent a majority in the new Parliament from forming a pro-independence government and implementing an independent state. This means a brief overview of Catalonia’s 1000-year history, with particular attention to more recent events, and especially since the long-standing dictator, Generalissimo Franco, died peacefully in his bed in 1975. The three-way fugue since 2010, of Catalan civil society, Catalan politicians and Spain’s leadership (with the aid of the courts), will frame the latter part of the presentation. Keywords: Catalonia, independence, Spain, politics 7 IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019 Introduction “In 2010 Spain’s Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling that inadvertently laid the ground for Sunday’s independence referendum in Catalonia” (Calamur 2017). “In the largest demonstration Barcelona has ever seen, 1.5 million citizens according to the Catalan Police marched in Catalonia’s capital after the banner ‘Catalonia, Europe’s new state’” (Pericay Coll 2012). “In a vote in the regional Parliament, Catalan lawmakers voted 72 to 63 to a plan for independence from Spain by 2017. The Spanish Prime Minster promised to halt the move for independence” (Gray 2015) “Spain is enduring the most serious challenge to its territorial integrity since October 1934, when the Catalan authorities rose against the democratically elected government of the second republic” (Dempsey 2017). “Apart from Brexit, this is Europe’s greatest challenge since the wars in the Balkans” (Adams 2017). The media are full of dramatic headlines on Catalonia. This paper is based on the presentation I was invited to make at the 2018 IAFOR Conference on Global Studies in Barcelona. Had the venue been elsewhere, or had the Conference been a couple of years ago, it would probably have made little sense to present it. But events in Catalonia, as outlined in the abstract, have been making news headlines for the past few years. My task is to give you a brief overview of Catalonia’s 1000-year history, without which it would be impossible to understand the recent, sometimes dramatic events here. It is structured in several parts: A brief history of Catalonia; The lead-up to the declaration of independence; October 1 and the aftermath; The sociodemographic context of the process; and, concluding remarks. A Brief History of Catalonia For anyone living in the New World, a thousand years may seem a very long time, but others might wish to point out that the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Romans left their marks in what we today call “Catalonia” well over 2,000 years ago, and that Homo sapiens was known to have lived here 22,000 years ago (and the Neanderthals doubled that figure) [see figure 1]. What is today Catalonia was the main Greek colony in the peninsula, and the starting point for the Roman occupation. And Catalonia’s mountain passes saw Hannibal’s elephants cross them, as well as countless other invading armies, and waves of colonisation, in both directions. 8 IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019 Figure 1. The Iberian Peninsula, ca. 156 BC Source: From Iberia 156BC-pt.svg: Alcides Pinto (discusión · contribuciones) derivative work: Rowanwindwhistler (discusión) - Iberia 156BC-pt.svg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44018976 The 1000-year figure has been chosen because that marked the creation of what today we could call an “independent state”, though in feudal times political structures had little to do with the structure of today’s democracies, however imperfect. At that time the local leading noble, the Count of Barcelona, controlled an area spanning the eastern, Mediterranean end of the Pyrenees mountains (and of the so-called Marca Hispanica). It was a buffer zone, a “march”, between the Franks to the north and the Moorish kingdoms to the south. His overlord – to which his family had paid tributes for generations, basically in return for protection from enemy attacks – was a Frankish king, Hug Capet, whose father had failed to come to the Catalans’ help when the Caliphate of Córdoba (the Muslims the time controlled nearly all of the centre and south of the Iberian peninsula) razed Barcelona to the ground in 985. In response, count Borrell II decided to stop paying the Franks their tributes as a vassal (Balcells, 1995. p. 3): in effect, then, in 988 AD he declared independence. Nearly 300 years ago, the historian Nott (1705: 30) had placed Catalonia’s effective sovereignty a century earlier, under Wilfred the Hairy: in 884 the Frankish Emperor 9 IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019 Charles the Great granted him «full and sovereign authority». He raised and administered the taxes, he minted his own coinage, he made the laws, he granted privileges, he waged war against the Muslims, he made alliances. As you all know, alliances those days were often dynastic, with other royal families. Thanks to the military exploits of the counts (see Figure 2), early in the 13th century Catalonia’s territory as such became close to what it is today, except for the northern part, above the Pyrenees, which was lopped off by the French king in the mid 17th century. Figure 2. The expansion of Catalonia, 900 – 1150 AD approx Source: By Каталонские_графства_в_IX-XII_вв.svg: Nektoderivative work: Lliura (talk) - Каталонские_графства_в_IX-XII_вв.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10713293 Catalonia and the kingdom of Aragon (the heirs of which, Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronella, married in 1164) had expanded under the great King (and Count!) James the 10 IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies Volume 4 – Issue 1 – Spring 2019 Conqueror southwards (Valencia) and across the sea (Balearic Islands) (Sapiens 2012). Each newly occupied territory was granted to a son, as a separate kingdom, though they later came under a joint leadership (and on accession, heirs would be required to swear not to split up Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia). Each of these territories kept its mint and its tariffs, developed its own laws (Catalonia developed a widely-used Maritime law), especially civil law, and governing property ownership, inheritance and similar key issues. From the mid-14th century, in each of the territories, institutions of self-government (always under the king) were set up, initially for tax-raising purposes. In Catalonia it was called the “Diputació general”, or “Generalitat”, and Catalonia’s government retains this name. Its seat of government, the Palace of the Generalitat, in the heart of the city, was established for this purpose in 1400 (in a large building that was soon rebuilt in an elaborate Gothic style). Another dynastic alliance was forged in the late 15th century, between King Ferdinand of Aragon (including, therefore, Catalonia, crippled by successive plagues brought in from the east, mainly because of Barcelona’s trading economy) and Isabelle, the heiress to the much more potent Kingdom of Castile of the day. The Catholic kings brought virtually all of what is now Spain under a single, shared crown. Their grandson, Emperor Charles, had wide dominions in Europe, and a rapidly growing set of colonies in central and southern America (Balcells 1994: 21 and ff.). Of significance is Balcells’ remark: «Only as a normal nation can Catalonia contribute to the difficult building of Europe, which needs all types of contribution». (p. 28) For several centuries thereafter the territories of the Kingdom of Aragon each retained their laws, currency, trade tariffs, etc. in the old “confederal” tradition (Elliott 2002 [1963], p. 78). Each new count of Barcelona had to earn allegiance, by negotiating updates in Catalonia’s laws, whereas the Castilian tradition was based on the divine right of kings: the Cortes did not pass laws (Elliott, 1984, p. 218). There was no “Act of Union” along the British model. The Catalan Parliament, which met regularly with the king, though less so in the 17th century, consisted of three chapters: the military chapter, which brought together the representatives of the nobility; the ecclesiastic chapter, with the representatives of the religious hierarchy, and the royal chapter, with the representatives of the cities and towns of the dominion of the monarch (Elliott, 1984, p. 218). However, farmers and the urban middle classes were excluded (as were, needless to say, the former serfs, and the working classes) (Sapiens 2010). Members were appointed to chair this institution in rotation between the three chapters: and the current president of Catalonia is the 131st name on that long list. This was retained despite a war – and a short-lived Catalan Republic – in the mid-17th century, in which the Viceroy, the Count of Santa Coloma, was assassinated, and the Castilian king, forced to choose, relinquished Portugal and retained (most of) Catalonia (Elliott, 1984, p. 450). Home rule was wiped out at the (tragic) end of the War of Spanish Succession.